The tribe of Judah Is of a different temper, and the task Will be more difficult.
ANTIOCHUS.
Dost thou gainsay me?
JASON.
I know the stubborn nature of the Jew.
Yesterday, Eleazer, an old man, Being fourscore years and ten, chose rather death By torture than to eat the flesh of swine.
ANTIOCHUS.
The life is in the blood, and the whole nation Shall bleed to death, or it shall change its faith! JASON.
Hundreds have fled already to the mountains Of Ephraim, where Judas Maccabaeus Hath raised the standard of revolt against thee.
ANTIOCHUS.
I will burn down their city, and will make it Waste as a wilderness.

Its thoroughfares Shall be but furrows in a field of ashes.
It shall be sown with salt as Sodom is! This hundred and fifty-third Olympiad Shall have a broad and blood-red sea upon it, Stamped with the awful letters of my name, Antiochus the God, Epiphanes!-- Where are those Seven Sons?
JASON.
My Lord, they wait Thy royal pleasure.
ANTIOCHUS.
They shall wait no longer! ACT II.
The Dungeons in the Citadel.
SCENE I.-- THE MOTHER of the SEVEN SONS alone, listening.
THE MOTHER.
Be strong, my heart! Break not till they are dead, All, all my Seven Sons; then burst asunder, And let this tortured and tormented soul Leap and rush out like water through the shards Of earthen vessels broken at a well.
O my dear children, mine in life and death, I know not how ye came into my womb; I neither gave you breath, nor gave you life, And neither was it I that formed the members Of every one of you.

But the Creator, Who made the world, and made the heavens above us, Who formed the generation of mankind, And found out the beginning of all things, He gave you breath and life, and will again Of his own mercy, as ye now regard Not your own selves, but his eternal law.
I do not murmur, nay, I thank thee, God, That I and mine have not been deemed unworthy To suffer for thy sake, and for thy law, And for the many sins of Israel.
Hark! I can hear within the sound of scourges! I feel them more than ye do, O my sons! But cannot come to you.

I, who was wont To wake at night at the least cry ye made, To whom ye ran at every slightest hurt, I cannot take you now into my lap And soothe your pain, but God will take you all Into his pitying arms, and comfort you, And give you rest.
A VOICE (within).
What wouldst thou ask of us?
Ready are we to die, but we will never Transgress the law and customs of our fathers.
THE MOTHER.
It is the Voice of my first-born! O brave And noble boy! Thou hast the privilege Of dying first, as thou wast born the first.
THE SAME VOICE (within).
God looketh on us, and hath comfort in us; As Moses in his song of old declared, He in his servants shall be comforted.
THE MOTHER.
I knew thou wouldst not fail!--He speaks no more, He is beyond all pain! ANTIOCHUS.

(within).
If thou eat not Thou shalt be tortured throughout all the members Of thy whole body.